Overwatch Is Going To Make A Much Needed Change To Loot Boxes

Blizzard Entertainment is updating Overwatch and it is making some major changes to the way loot boxes work in the first-person shooter. The change addresses an issue that gamers have complained about for as long as loot boxes have been active. You'll no longer have to worry about duplicate items being looted from the box.

Polygon is reporting that the upcoming update for Overwatch changes the loot box roll so that duplicate items being looted from the box is now a thing of the past. This was briefly mentioned at the very end of the developer update highlights that Blizzard posted on YouTube.

Duplicate items are being reduced by a great degree. Blizzard Entertainment rolled out the new change on the Public Test Realm, where players are able to test out the new feature and see how well it works.

So what happens when you access a loot box now that duplicates have been reduced? Well, Blizzard had to tweak and balance the payout for gamers in Overwatch by compensating with higher credit output. So you get reduced duplicate character skins or other trinkets, and higher credits. Seems like a fair trade-off right?

In addition to this, game director Jeff Kaplan also mentions that this doesn't completely solve the problem of duplicates. Given that there isn't an infinite supply of items to unlock in Overwatch, it means that eventually players will end up unlocking some of the same items over and over again, once they reach the peak and unlock everything that the game has to offer. This is still somewhat offset by the inclusion of credits replacing some duplicate items, which should help players feel a bit more verve when attaining a loot box and looking forward to unlocking something fresh (or at the very least, propping up their credits).

Over in China, Blizzard had to make some modifications to the way loot boxes are distributed, giving gamers an opportunity to find out what the percentages are of item drop rates. This is all due to a new law by the Chinese government to force software providers to make it clear what the percentages are of RNG cash shop boxes or crates.

There's been an increase in publishers relying on cash shop crates with random items inside priced at various tiers. However, most common gamers have no idea what their chances are of actually unlocking anything worthwhile from the loot boxes, which results in spending loads of cash in an attempt to unlock the item they want. The Chinese government viewed this as gambling, and forced software companies to reveal the actual percentages of possibly winning or unlocking gear via the loot crates/boxes.

After Blizzard makes the proper tweaks and updates to the PTR version of Overwatch and ensures that the new loot feature is right proper, they have plans on rolling out the new loot system for the general public.

Also, Kaplan revealed in the video that Blizzard is addressing the highlight reel and how players can save and distribute replay highlights in Overwatch. However, the bigger story is obviously that the loot distribution is changing.